Family, friends remember the Rev. McKinnish

By NANCY TANKERTimes-News Staff Writer

Friday

Aug 23, 2013 at 5:03 PM

The Rev. Harold McKinnish loved music, and used the medium to inspire spirituality. His death Wednesday left many grieving.

The Rev. Harold McKinnish loved music, and used the medium to inspire spirituality. His death Wednesday left many grieving.“It’s been a real bad week,” said Hendersonville accoustical guitarist Larry Keith. “He was a dear, dear friend of our family, since as far as I can remember — since I was born.” McKinnish, of East Flat Rock, died at age 80 after a protracted illness. But the man described by one friend as “the most-loved man in Henderson County” left behind plenty of memories. “We started out at Balfour Baptist church in the late ’40s. We all grew up attending camp meetings and brush arbor meetings when I was a formidable young lad,” Keith said Friday. “I hate to admit this, but I would be forced to go with my parents. In my mind it was a music event and I would always pay close attention to the music. That’s what got me in trouble — I should have been listening to the preacher instead of the music.“I always listened to Harold, though, preaching or playing. He would play old songs that I liked, bluegrass gospel songs. ‘Sacred tunes’ is what Harold referred to them as. To him they meant home, family and spirituality. When I got old enough to play on my own and developed my own taste in music, accoustic music always played a big part in my life, and that started with Harold. What a wonderful person he was. “The thing about Harold is that before he was a pastor he was always a friend. If you had something you needed some help with or your family was struggling, he was the man you could turn to.”McKinnish recorded several songs with Keith on his gospel CDs, including “Victory in Jesus,” which appears on Keith’s “Traveling Angel II” CD. “I included a bonus track on that CD where Harold talked about the old camp meetings and cottage prayer meetings we all participated in when I was coming up, and it was just priceless to hear him talk,” Keith said. “He was the most-loved man in Henderson County — easily.”On the bonus track, McKinnish reminisced about his childhood, recalling his mother playing “an old-fashioned pump organ” on which she would play “Victory.” “We would sing on key, off key or no key, but we enjoyed singing; we enjoyed music in our home,” he said. “We’d bring in a few banjos and harmonicas and whatever. ... We listened to the whip-poor-wills and the hoot owls and learned how to sing from them and the chirping of the birds. I still sound like a whip-poor-will, but it’s alright.”Robert Elias Ballard of Zirconia also recalled how much music and spirituality meant to McKinnish. “I’ve heard him say more than once, ‘I was cut out to be a musician, but sewed up to be a preacher,’” Ballard said. “Harold was a real encourager. I have a son, Gary, who is blind and plays the mandolin. Harold would come to the house and we would jam in our living room; it was a fairly common thing. We grew up doing that and so did Harold.“Harold had an old F-12 Gibson mandolin. He was an interim pastor at our church, Cedar Springs Baptist, for a while and we enjoyed listening to his sermons and playing music with him. Everyone who was around Harold enjoyed being in his presence. He was everybody’s pastor, even if you didn’t go to his church.In his adult years, McKinnish played mandolin and sang with the Log Cabin Bluegrass Boys. His obituary notes that he served as pastor of nine Baptist Churches, including Tuxedo, Fletcher, Ebenezer, East Flat Rock and Refuge in Henderson County. He preached more than 17,000 sermons and comforted grieving family and friends at more than 2,500 funerals. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Lois Griffin McKinnish; a son, Jim McKinnish; a daughter, Linda McKinnish Bridges; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Music and spirituality were “very, very much” intertwined in his life, said his daughter, Linda McKinnish Bridges, currently an associate dean of international admissions at Wake Forest University, where she also teaches religion and the New Testament. “Music was a central part of our lives growing up. Early on in his small Baptist churches, our family became the music for church. My brother would sing, I would play the piano or the organ and my mother would sing. We would also have ‘frolics.’ That’s what the mountain people would call them — when everyone would gather at someone’s house and make music. You don’t play music, you make it.“Music was a part of his childhood tradition, so he brought it into our home. We would often gather around the piano ... and we would sing together in the living room or dining room. The Appalachian style of music, which was more democratic and equal opportunity; no matter how good you were or bad you were, you were always welcome to make music.”Bridges recalled that more than a decade ago her father built a hermitage, “where he could go for personal prayer and meditation.” Soon after, her father and his musician friends started meeting there every Tuesday to play together. Today, special musical memories comfort her and help her remember how special her father was. She recalled playing at the Wake Forest homecoming one year. “It was my joy, playing the accordion between my dad on the mandolin and my son on the guitar. My dad wrote a special song for the event called ‘Bluegrass has come to Wake Forest.’ He got a standing ovation and I realized in that instant that it’s a great gift he gave us — a deep love of Appalachian music.”Reach Tanker at 828-694-7871 or nancy.tanker@blueridgenow.com.

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